Many known locking systems incorporate locking cores which engage locking systems within storage compartments, cabinets, furniture and other storage units. In some instances, these locking cores may be removed, albeit with difficulty, for retrofitted replacement with new locking cores when the original locking cores become worn, broken or inoperable. When removed from their original installation, these original locking cores are often unsuitable for reinstallation. Often, these known locking cores are not intended or designed for reuse after removal. Other known locking cores are prone to failure because of the methods used to manufacture those locking cores.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,761,978 and 4,914,932 to Walla disclose a locking core made of a single cast material having two opposing legs which are designed to engage a lock system. However, since such legs are typically cast from a relatively inflexible, and often brittle material, the legs are unsuitable for repeated removal or reuse after extraction from an existing installation. The legs disclosed in Walla were prone to being bent, damaged or distorted during an installation step or during extraction, thus creating potential or actual weaknesses in locking systems.
Attempts were made to improve the locking core design disclosed in Walla as further described below in the context of another known locking core design which incorporates modifications intended to overcome some of the problems associated with the previously known inflexible, brittle legs described above.